Time Warner: Pay TV ‘doing fine’

Time Warner Inc chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes said that rumours to the contrary, the pay television business is doing well, adding that initiatives like TV Everywhere are enhancing the value of subscription video packages.

He told the UBS Media & Communications conference that networks like Home Box Office, are “doing fine,” adding that fears that online offerings would encourage so-called cord-cutting haven’t materialised.

Bewkes is an advocate of TV Everywhere and said that Time Warner’s Turner networks will be 80 per cent TV Everywhere enabled by the end of the year. And he said instead of encouraging cord cutting, it is showing customers the inherent value of their video subscription.

Bewkes said that declines in pay TV customers are more due to economic difficulties rather than signalling a shift in distribution.